I used to hate Sony’s Annie remake on account of it being another Will Smith vanity project starring one of his obnoxious little fame avatar children. But Willow got too old to play the lead, and Quvenzhane Wallis (I just won Scrabble!) from Beasts of the Southern Wild was cast. I guess I don’t hate it as much now, but I really hope Hollywood doesn’t ruin that adorable little girl’s life. Anyway, now Jamie Foxx has been cast as Daddy Warbucks. Only they’re calling him “Benjamin Stacks” in this one. Get it? Because it’s an African-American remake, and “stacking Benjamins” is African-American talk for making lots of money. I heard they tried to do an African-American remake of The Rainmaker but… you know what, I’m not even going to finish this joke.

Jamie Foxx is in negotiations to star opposite Quvenzhane Wallis in Annie, the update of the classic comic strip-turned-musical that Sony is making with producers Will Smithand Jay-Z.

Foxx would play a character named Benjamin Stacks, a variation of the Daddy Warbucks personage, who takes in the spunky orphan girl being played by Wallis. (You know he’s rich because his name literally means stacks of $100 bills, aka Benjamins.)

I admire the restraint it took not to spell it “Benjamin Staxx.” That never would’ve happened had Vin Diesel been producing.

The Django Unchained star has received an offer from the studio and sources say his team has begun to negotiate.

Will Gluck is directing the project, which has a host of producers: Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment banner partner James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jay-Z. Also producing are Jay Brown and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith through Marcy Media. [THR]

This project used to be fun to make fun of at least, but now it’s like a yawn wrapped in shrugs. I guess that’s a good thing, because if I had to watch one of Will Smith’s millionaire brats rapping about her “hard knock life,” I might’ve had an aneurysm. “At least he died watching something he hated,” people would say.

Why the heck are they renaming him? Are they afraid that African American audiences can’t understand the original name? That is the worst kind of pandering; dumbing down a film because you think that your audience isn’t intelligent.